Beautiful Old Black Cloth Tape Ball sunderland with a patch at one

with a patch at one corner

Wear to the lower left corner

but sturdy and stable and stands flush to the ground

in the nice old wooden frame I found it in

but it feels rather more like a lobster boat in spirit

Beautiful Old Black Cloth Tape Ball sunderland with a patch at oneI had one other ball like this several years ago, and learned that sometimes when the leather skin came off a baseball softball, people would wrap the center in black cloth tape like this. To me it's like a more succinct and visceral version of a rag ball, wounded and wound, looking almost as if coated in tar. A beautiful and evocative thing. Approx 3" in diameter and in good, tightly wrapped condition.